Over the festive season, Cape Town was witness to the temporary closure of a number of its iconic beaches, as a result of sewage spills discharging into the sea. Press reports highlighted the failing state of sewage plants across Cape Town as the cause, a problem known to the City for some time already. Lesley Rochat, a conservation activist noted on her blog that “I have been told by the City that funding is lacking to address the problems of failed pumps and old, outdated systems, which are taking greater strain with increased loadshedding: Lights go out, pumps fail and poop overflows into the sea…”
Amongst the worst performers is the Athlone Wastewater Treatment Works (WWTW), designed to treat 105-million litres of sewage per day but operating for a number of years far above its capacity. In December 2022, less than two years after being a contender for a Green Drop award, meant to recognise High Quality Wastewater Management, Groundup reported that the Athlone WWTW failed completely to meet national guidelines for bacterial contamination in its treated effluent and also performed poorly with regard to reducing chemical pollution by phosphates and nitrates. As a result, the plant discharges partially treated effluent into the Black River, already a waterway known to be highly polluted, but also a river used for fishing by locals. The Black River joins the Liesbeek River to flow into the sea in Table Bay at the Salt River mouth. The image above, opposite the Berkeley Rd bridge construction, shows clearly the degraded state of the Black River (not the Liesbeek, which is one of the least contaminated urban rivers in Cape Town).
Yet, it is the Athlone WWTW that would need to receive the additional wastewater from the massive River Club development on Liesbeek. Already failing, it will be is clearly unable to cope with the additional burden of sewage coming from a development that is planning to host approximately 600 apartments and 120 000 m2 of commercial floor space, including a hotel and a private school. Amazon alone intends to have 1500 to 1900 parking bays for employees and the developers noted that this number excluded large portion of staff dependent on public transport, specifically those working in the call centre. So, it is clear this development will add a lot of sewage to municipal systems – estimated by the developers’ consultants as generating an additional 640 kl of sewage per day.
The City’s Wastewater department noted in their comments on the Basic Assessment Report that the anticipated sewage flow of 26.6 l/s exceeded the previous allocation for the development and that the wastewater flows of the proposed development could not be accommodated by existing infrastructure due to current capacity constraints. For that reason, the approvals from the City were contingent on the developers paying for two on-site sewer pump stations, as well as infrastructure linking the stations to the City's sewer infrastructure, and also on the City pumping sewage from Athlone to the Cape Flats WWTW which had, at that time, “sufficient unallocated treatment capacity.”
However, the regular malfunctioning of pump stations is well-recognised and is not a recent phenomenon. It has only been exacerbated by the catastrophic severe load shedding that Eskom, our national electricity utility, has visited on South Africa and which is likely to continue for some time. In fact, it is Eskom that the City has blamed for the failure of its sewage systems over the festive season, precisely because “with higher, prolonged stages of load-shedding being experienced, sewer spills and overflows are to be expected, despite the contingency measures that are in place … We need to accept that pump station faults can, and will, occur.”
But the solution for the River Club development, which is taking place in a context of a suburb without the infrastructure to accommodate this development, is to rely on two pump stations built by the developer to avoid pollution by an overloaded sewage system. Notably, one of the conditions argued by the City’s engineers for approval were “emergency measures to prevent sewer spillage is required.”
A development levy of more than R 73 million was calculated for the development of which approximately R 10,5 million was said in the Appeal Report to be reserved for improvements to the water and sewerage reticulation system. However, the Chief Planner’s motivation to the Municipal Planning Tribunal in September 2020 noted that “The developer will incur the cost of the construction of a portion of the Berkley Road extension which will be off-set against the development levy” and later noted that “While a development contribution (DC) has been levied for improvements to engineering services, it is anticipated that the cost to road improvements as a consequence of the proposal will likely exceed the DC levied and as a consequence the cost of road improvements may be off-set against the DC charged.”
So, in the opaque smoke-and-mirrors of development approval decisions by the City, it seems that at the most, the City is getting R 10.5 million to address the likely burden on sewage infrastructure (and water and other basic services) and even that is not confirmed. Instead, funds which could have been deployed to improving water and sanitation infrastructure, both for the Athlone WWTW and for wider Cape Town, have been diverted to fund the Berkely Road extension, a traffic measure without which the development is not feasible. Moreover, the Berkely Road extension is unlikely to alleviate traffic congestion in the medium to long-term, since it is not reinforcing public transport-oriented planning and the development is also bringing to the site thousands of vehicles as commuters (remember, Amazon have upward of 1500 parking spaces on site).
The City is said to be investing over R 900 million over the next two years to upgrade pump stations and boost sewage services protection from loadshedding. But the investment will only yield benefits in the medium- to long-term. The upgrades to the Athlone Wastewater Treatment Works are scheduled to be completed in 2029 “if all goes as planned.” In the meanwhile, the City has approved a massive development against all of its own policies on flooding, storm water management and environmental protections. It has written off public money (the development charge) against a road of short-term value for mobility and of no contribution to improving public transport or non-motorised transport. In short, what we have here is a Public Subsidy of a Private Development and Wastewater management is the casualty.
When we get to the review, our case is still due to examine all these matters in the High Court, from the unlawfulness of the heritage approval to the range of environmental issues which were not properly considered.
But we cannot pursue this case and the campaign effectively with our hands economically tied behind our backs. Please support us by contributing at our fundraising site. Any donation of any size will make a huge difference
Visit our website and follow the Liesbeek Action Campaign on twitter: @LiesbeekAction.
Make the Liesbeek Matter!